Brother HL-2270DW drivers in Windows 10 and questions

My sister has a machine I'm upgrading to Windows 10. I selected Windows 10 x64 on Brother's website, when trying to download drivers for her HL-2270DW. However, the files the website is showing are mostly dated 2012. Since Windows 10 hadn't come out by that date, I'm wondering if these are the right files.

Brother's website lists a support number. When I called, the IVR told me that line was only for purchases, and that all support was "exclusively on the Brother.com website". It said I could do a live chat there for help. I see no live chat feature on the website after perusing it for 1/2 an hour.

Yeah, but as I understand it, you lose certain functionality, such as duplexing. I believe she needs duplexing. Also, will software apps that came with the printer still work if I use a generic driver?

Yeah, I'm considering just making an image of her Win7 install and trying it. Just frustrating that Brother is not available by phone or chat. Now I see how they were able to start making reliable printers again.

Mostly you don't need support for their stuff, it works well. My mom has a Brother printer, I have one at home. Mine's new, hers is at least 4 years old now. Both work great with Windows 10 with the drivers you get from the website. Just do the full install and it should be fine. Printer tech moves really slow in general so even drivers from Windows 8 will probably be mostly fine if the accompanying applications for management were written well. The Brother management apps are not pretty but they work well and are more or less reliable, in my experience.

They won't muck up the system or anything, just give them a shot. It should be fine.

Yeah, but as I understand it, you lose certain functionality, such as duplexing. I believe she needs duplexing. Also, will software apps that came with the printer still work if I use a generic driver?

Yeah, I'm considering just making an image of her Win7 install and trying it. Just frustrating that Brother is not available by phone or chat. Now I see how they were able to start making reliable printers again.

You're over-thinking this. It's a printer driver. Install it. It will work, or it won't. It almost certainly WILL work. In fact, I'm pretty sure that my friend's Brother printer is a 2270DW, and it's working fine with that driver on Windows 10.

And if it doesn't, I'm pretty sure that even duplexing will work with a generic PCL driver, if you enable it in the printer properties. Duplexing isn't an advanced feature.

We have HL-2270DW in our environment. Duplexing and printing works. There's a reason why Brother's download page lists the drivers as compatible with Windows 10. It's because they are compatible with Windows 10.

A manufacturer knows their product better than we do. Just install the driver.

Because you're downloading a package installer. No way Brother will fit all their bloatware in 30MB.So what it does it downloads and auto-updates from the program. They don't feel the need to load the final version on the website.

Got it, thanks. I was wondering why web installers were all the rage. Windows 10 in-place upgrade done with a small, but nice boost in user speed. Will do clean upgrade install and hopefully it will all work in the end.

I never bothered with drivers from Brother's website when I got mine. Windows 10 found drivers for the printer right off the cuff, and it's been working great. Duplex, scanning, and all other features are working great.

I never bothered with drivers from Brother's website when I got mine. Windows 10 found drivers for the printer right off the cuff, and it's been working great. Duplex, scanning, and all other features are working great.

The printer is old enough that in some circumstances Windows 10 wasn't pulling the 2270DW's drivers if it was network connected. But in that case I just took the basic driver, extracted it, and pointed the add printer wizard to the extracted folder when it asked for drivers.

I never bothered with drivers from Brother's website when I got mine. Windows 10 found drivers for the printer right off the cuff, and it's been working great. Duplex, scanning, and all other features are working great.

The printer is old enough that in some circumstances Windows 10 wasn't pulling the 2270DW's drivers if it was network connected. But in that case I just took the basic driver, extracted it, and pointed the add printer wizard to the extracted folder when it asked for drivers.

Ah, in my case, I have a newer printer, DCP-L2550DW. Windows is just using a generic Brother driver for all the features, after I added the printer through the Add Printer wizard. I selected the network connected printer (via ethernet), clicked on Next, waited about 2 minutes while it downloaded and installed the driver, and I was on my merry way.

I never bothered with drivers from Brother's website when I got mine. Windows 10 found drivers for the printer right off the cuff, and it's been working great. Duplex, scanning, and all other features are working great.

Same. Windows has a bunch of built in/auto-downloadable drivers for all manner of Brother printers, and even if it doesn't find the exact same model, you can find a model in the same family and it will work just fine. Same is true on a Mac. I never bother downloading drivers for Brother printers from their website.

Unfortunate that their phone support sounds like it sucks, but they've been bullet proof in terms of operation for me, so I never needed support. They also provide driver updates for years longer than any other consumer-level manufacturer.